Lunar eclipse from 3rd / 4th September 609 BC Chr.

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The observation details of the lunar eclipse from 3rd / 4th September 609 BC BC (−608 according to the astronomical calculation , Saros period  47) were recorded on a cuneiform tablet by a Babylonian astronomer . The record (BM 32234) belonging to the genre of ACT texts is currently in the British Museum in London .

The 3rd / 4th indicated in the Julian calendar system . September 609 BC When converted to the current Gregorian calendar , BC corresponds to the 27./28. August 609 BC This record acquired particular importance through the reference to the Babylonian king Nabopolassar, among other things .

First translations

The Assyriologist Johann Nepomuk Strassmaier and the astronomers Josef Epping and Franz Xaver Kugler first began to translate the Babylonian-astronomical cuneiform text.

The outstanding research achievements of the time were continued by Otto Neugebauer , among others . In 1955 the three-volume standard work Astronomical cuneiform Texts - Babylonian ephemerides of the Seleucid period for the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets , which still forms the basis of the Babylonian astronomical history to this day, was published.

Babylonian text BM 32234 (LBAT 1419)

The astronomical event mentioned was a total lunar eclipse that had to be dated precisely based on the information in the cuneiform text. By checking with other historical eclipses, it was found that the historical dates deviate from the back-calculated values. The corresponding time difference is referred to as " Δ T ".

Taking into account the Δ T , the partial phase of the lunar eclipse began in Babylonia around 1:00 a.m. on September,  609 BC. And reached its maximum of totality around 2:55 am. The observation values ​​show great accuracy with regard to the actual occurrence of the lunar eclipse:

"Nabopolassar 17th year: [14. Ululu] against ... [...], [moon darkened] [...] after sunset ... "

- BM 32234 (LBAT 1419)

See also

literature

  • Josef Epping, Johann Nepomuk Strassmaier: Astronomical things from Babylon or the knowledge of the Chaldeans about the starry sky . Herder, Freiburg 1889, ( parts from Maria-Laach supplementary books 44).
  • Franz Xaver Kugler : astronomy and star service in Babel . Volume 1: Development of Babylonian Planetary Studies from its Beginnings to Christ. According to mostly unpublished sources from the British Museum . Aschendorff, Münster 1907.
  • Otto Neugebauer : The exact sciences in antiquity . Unabridged, slightly corrected reprint of the 2nd edition, Brown University Press, 1957. Dover Publications, New York NY 2004, ISBN 0-486-22332-9 , ( Dover classics of science and mathematics ).
  • Otto Neugebauer (Ed.): Astronomical cuneiform Texts. Babylonian ephemerides of the Seleucid period for the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets . Reprint edition. 3 volumes. Springer, New York NY et al. 1983, ISBN 0-387-90812-9 , ( Sources in the history of mathematics and physical sciences 5), (the original edition appeared: Humphries, London 1955).
  • Abraham J. Sachs: Astronomical Diaries and related Texts from Babylonia . Volume 5: Hermann Hunger (Ed.): Lunar and Planetary Texts . Including materials by Abraham J. Sachs. With an appendix by John M. Steele. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-7001-3028-7 , ( Austrian Academy of Sciences - Philosophical-Historical Class - Memoranda 299).
  • Francis Richard Stephenson : Historical Eclipses and Earth's rotation . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-46194-4 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. a b c Date in the Julian calendar ; in the Gregorian calendar , 7 days are subtracted from the Julian date. The date is based on NASA information ( Memento from November 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) taking into account the T-Delta. For Babylonia, the time zone surcharge of 3 hours must be taken into account compared to Universal Time (UT); according to Jean Meeus : Astronomical Algorithms - Applications for Ephemeris Tool 4,5 - , Barth, Leipzig 2000 for: Ephemeris Tool 4,5 according to Jean Meeus, conversion program, 2001 .
  2. ^ A b Hermann Hunger: Lunar and Planetary Texts . P. 395.
  3. 5 hours and 14 minutes.
  4. The sunset was around 6:40 p.m. local time.